It is hard for me to believe that is has almost been 20 years since Pretty Boy Floyd’s debut, Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz. It has been a long time since I listened to this disc, as I only picked up a copy of this CD, only recently. I once owned a copy of this on cassette tape, but that tape bit the dust a long time ago.

I somewhat recall the band having a sound similar to Motley Crue, but aside from the title track, I could not remember much of the album.

Steve Stevens vocals do remind me of Vince Neil’s vocals from the Too Fast For Love album, but I believe the style of music is a little closer toPoison than Motley Crue. I don’t think Pretty Boy Floyd is as good as either of those two bands. I did enjoy their songs, Rock & Roll, the Motley Crue Cover, Toast of the Town, and the title track, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, but aside from that, I found this to be fairly standard stuff. This is a CD for hair/glam metal fans only.

Pretty Boy Floyd will reunite for the Rocklahoma Music Festival on Saturday July 12th. If you are looking for a copy of Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, prior to the show, you can purchase the CD at this link.

In 2007, the reunited Jetboy released an excellent CD/DVD Compilation, simply titled, The Glam Years.

Jetboy is one the more unappreciated bands of the 80’s hard rock/glam metal era. The CD gives you 21 tracks of hard rocking goodness, that is more of a best of package than it is demos. A couple of the songs are of demo quality, especially On The Lips, but the rest sound like finished versions.

This CD, also includes Jetboy’s killer cover of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues!

The CD has the best cuts off of Jetboy’s five previously released CD’s Feel the Shake, Damned Nation, Day In the Glamour Life, Lost and Found, Make Some More Noise, One More For Rock and Roll.

This 2 disc package is priced to sell (under 15 dollars at most line retailers) and is worth the money for the CD alone. If you don’t own Jetboy’s out of print discs, Feel the Shake and Damned Nation already, this is the perfect way to reacquire some of the tunes from those records.

The DVD covers a live show the band did at the Whiskey A Go-Go in 1986. The video quality isn’t much to speak of, but it does do a good job of catching Jetboy in their prime. I enjoyed the live show on the DVD, as well as the tunes in this collection. I definitely recommend this to fans of 80’s glam metal.

Rating:Out of 10

Check out Jetboy performing the Johnny Cash song, Folsom Prison Blues, below! This was from their December concert in Columbus, Ohio. For those of you lucky enough to have a three day pass to Rocklahoma 2008, be sure to check out Jetboy, when they take the stage on Thursday! You will be glad you did.

In 2007, the band Mass released their first CD with new material since 1988.

I do not know how a band that has been around since the early 80’s has managed to stay off of my radar for so long. One thing is for sure, I am glad I have found them. Their new disc, Crack of Dawn is a quality piece of melodic rock.

Singer Louis D’Augusta reminds of a cross between Tony Harnell and Johnny Gioelli. He is a very good singer, and his clean vocals are a pleasure to my ears. This album tends to go back and fourth between AOR and hard rock. I prefer the harder edged tunes on this disc. My favorites are It’s You, Sweet Lady Jane, and the bonus track Seven Days.

While I am not familiar with any of Mass’ previously released music, I have enjoyed Crack of Dawn enough to look for other releases in their catalog of music.

You can check out a few tunes off of Crack of Dawn at the band’s myspace page.

Don’t miss them when they take the stage at Rocklahoma on July 12th, 2008!

Way back in 1989, I picked up a copy of Vain’s debut, No Respect on cassette. I recollect not caring for this release very much back then. This was one of the many tapes that was stolen out of my car back in the 80’s, and I never replaced it. The recent announcement of VAIN on the bill at Rocklahoma, had me scurrying to find a new copy of No Respect. This disc was out of print for a while, but it was reissued by Gott Discs in 2004.

I hoped my opinion would change the second time around for this disc, and you know what, it has! No Respect is a lot better than I remember it to be.

Davy Vain‘s vocal style is kind of like a whiny Phil Lewis, but it grows on you, and is different enough to give this disc some appeal. There is no question, that VAIN rooted themselves in the Glam Metal scene. One look at their picture (below) and you can easily tell what era of rock they came from. The cool thing about VAIN, is they really don’t sound much like peers from the hair metal era.

The music is a lot more raw, and less pop than many of the bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s. I would guess that Danny West is influenced by Joe Satriani based on some of his guitar licks on this album. (Listen to his playing in the video Beat the Bullet and you will see what I mean.) The guitar work on this record is quite good, and I have found the songs to be much more to my liking in 2008.

Thanks to Rocklahoma, I am happy to have added this disc back to my collection. I am going to be playing this CD a lot in the coming weeks. If you haven’t ever listened to VAIN before, be sure to check out the videos below. You may find yourself wanting to add this highly under rated disc to your own collection.

Today marks the return of the Rocklahoma Review Series (2008 Edition). For the next 17 Saturdays, I will be reviewing CD’s by some of the bands that are on the Rocklahoma 2008 roster. There are over 84 bands this year, so their are plenty to choose from. Hopefully this experience will be as eye opening for everyone as it was for me this week. You see, I have not played the debut CD by Beautiful Creatures in two or three years. This band fell off of my radar for a while until the recent Rocklahoma announcement. I decided to give this CD a spin, and was pleasantly surprised with what I found here.

Beautiful Creatures is the band led by Bang Tango singer Joe Leste and Sixx A.M. guitar player DJ Ashba. I guess with Joe Leste as the front man for Beautiful Creatures, I expected this band to be some kind of a Bang Tango clone. I do here some small similarites to Bang Tango, but this CD reminds me a whole lot of the 1994 Motley Crue CD with John Corabi. Quite a few of the songs on this disc, would not have sounded out of place on that record. The tunes on this record, probably have more in common with 90’s grunge, than they do with 80’s glam, but the hard rocking guitar solos are unmistakably 80’s.

My favorite cuts on this disc are Wasted, Ride, Kick Out, and Kickin’ For Days. This is an album that doesn’t really have any filler cuts, although some songs are stronger than others. Most importanly, this disc rocks hard and does it well. After hearing these songs again for the first time in years, I would bet that they would translate well live. This should be a treat to hear for those that will be in attendance for the Sunday afternoon show at Rocklahoma. If you aren’t familiar with Beautiful Creatures music, be sure to watch their videos below, and check out their myspace page!

Rating:Out of 10

Track Listing:

1. 1 A.M.
2. Wasted
3. Step Back
4. Ride
5. Wish
6. Kick Out
7. Blacklist
8. Kickin For Days
9. Time And Time Again
10. Goin Off
11. New Orleans
12. I Got It All